


New World

by eravy



Category: The Jungle Book (1967), The Lion King (1994)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crack, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Slow Build, everyone is very ooc, take a shot everytime i use a cliche or when i try to compare zazu to a bird
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-07 08:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7708228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eravy/pseuds/eravy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mufasa and Scar are the recently instated directors of their father's corporation. Zira is hired as Scar's executive assistant. Plots, schemes, drama and office romances ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Interview

**Author's Note:**

> Huh, all right so this is the first fic I ever posted. I wrote this a couple of nights ago because I couldn't sleep so I don't exactly know where I'm going with it. This fic is not beta proofed and my first language is not English so there will definitely be some mistakes.

"Next!" Zira hears a male voice crying out in annoyance from inside the room she is about to soon enter for her job interview.  
A young woman exits the office with a clearly distraught expression on her face. She gives Zira a glance that says 'good luck in there, you'll need it,' and quietly makes her way down the hallway. Zira takes one last deep breath, exhales, straightens her black pencil skirt and confidently steps through the door in front of her.  
"Good morning!" she greets the two men that sit behind the desk.  
The one on the left is wearing a bright blue suit and a red shirt that reminds Zira of a parrot you might see when you walk by a pet shop. A fashionable ID spelling 'Zazu— Executive Assistant to CEO' hangs neatly clipped to the edge of his chest pocket. He is a short man with dark brown hair and a large aquiline nose that gives support to a pair of rimless eyeglasses. He's the only one that greets Zira back and gestures her to sit down while he browses through the many papers that lie in front of him.  
The man on the right is tall and has an elegant air about him. He watches the view outside the window idly, ignoring the presence of the people he is currently sharing the room with. The fine tailored suit he wears matches his thick black hair that is tied loosely in a low ponytail. He could be handsome but for the scar that slashes across his green eye. Zira tries not to stare, so she shifts her gaze quickly back to Zazu who still hasn't found her file yet.  
"Miss...?" he inquires with exasperation.  
"Zira."  
"Ah, yes!" the shorter man exclaims pulling a paper from underneath the pile. "I see you have studied Information Technology in France."  
"Yes, I was born in South Africa and have traveled extensively throughout Europe, but mainly France."  
"That is quite impressive. So what exactly motivated you to— "  
"How many more?" their dialogue is cut off by the other man who still looks generally uninterested in whatever was going on.  
"I'm sorry?" Zira inquires not understanding his question.  
He glances at her sideways, slightly pissed off, as if he were saying 'I wasn't talking to you,' and then turns to face Zazu.  
"How many more candidates are there left to interview?"  
"She is the last one, sir."  
"And how many candidates have I approved of so far?"  
Zazu shift uncomfortably in his chair. "None, sir," he replies after awkwardly clearing his throat.  
"I see."  
A heavy silence fills the room for a couple of seconds while Zira shares a concerned look with the shorter man. Scar stands up unexpectedly and walks away from the desk after gathering some of the files and buttoning his jacket. Zira's mind is racing with desperation. She really needs this job because she is practically broke and this is all going terribly wrong! Sure, working for a capitalist corporation is not exactly her childhood dream, but she does need the money, and besides working directly for the man would be no small feat.  


"Congratulations, you are hired," she hears him say just as he passes her by. "Zazu, do inform my brother that he can stop pestering me now about finding myself an assistant, and do try to instruct her to the best of your abilities. I don't need her dragging me down or messing up my office." And just like that he exits the room, leaving behind him an open door and two persons in stupor.  
"I am not entirely sure if I understand what just happened," Zira states while her head is still turned in disbelief towards the door. "Am I hired then?"  
"I believe so, yes," Zazu tries his best to respond while simultaneously asking himself why is he still surprised. "I also believe congratulations are in order," he adds sitting up and outstretching his arm for a handshake. "Although I'm not entirely sure that ending up working for Scar is something you offer congratulations for..." he mumbles more to himself than to Zira. "I'm sure you have heard that he has an unusual behavior. You'll see that it's not unlike him to do these kind of things."  
"Ah, so you do call him Scar," Zira says in an amused tone, feeling less pressure on her head than she did ten minutes ago.  
"Only behind his back because he scares me to death," Zazu replies sheepishly and Zira laughs. "It started out with his nephew, Simba, calling him 'Uncle Scar' and it kind of stuck with everyone around here. Even he got used to it eventually, but it didn't help him grow more fond of the kid."  
Zira smiles widely while listening to the story, but soon her expression shifts and worry takes place as she hears bad things about her boss less than five minutes after getting the job. "Does he really make everyone's life a living hell?"  
"Depends on how you look at it. Most of the time he doesn't interact with any of us, he just thinks us incompetents and does everything by himself. He is fond of yelling at the administrative assistants thou," Zazu answers with a grimace of disapproval on his face. "In any case, you officially start on Monday. 9am sharp. I'll draft a contract for you."


	2. Day 1

Zira’s first day at work starts less than ideal. Apparently going out with friends to celebrate landing a new job is one thing, but staying out with friends until 3 in the morning to get absolutely hammered because this is your last night of freedom before selling your soul to the corporatist version of Satan is something else entirely. So after less than four hours of sleep and waking up too late to be able to get ready properly, Zira also manages to get into a fight with her eccentric landlord who charges way too much for the crappy apartments he is offering.  
“I so don’t give a shit,” Zira mumbles over the cracker she holds between her lips as she rushes down the stairs while trying to button her shirt. “It’s first thing in the morning, I don’t have time for this. If you don’t let me get to my job I won’t be able to pay you anything.”  
“But Venus is in the second house so it’s the perfect day to collect rent!” she hears her landlord yell before she finally manages to get out of the building.  
She rushes to the subway wondering what kind of lunatic decides the due date according to the stars and planets, but the only answer she can provide to herself is ‘Rafiki, that’s who.’ She uses the time she has to spend in the public transport to calm herself down: she is going to be at best fifteen minutes late either way, so at least she can get used to the idea of being most likely yelled at.

The surprise comes when she is not actually getting yelled at because there is no one to yell at her in the first place. After dashing past the front desk and sharing an awkward elevator ride, Zira does not expect the dark, empty office that greets her. After a few moments of being at a loss, she checks her phone: the date is right, the time is right and there is no message to inform her not to come in today. She decides to wait it out.  
Fifteen minutes. Twenty five. Thirty. All right, time to find reinforcements. After spending more than half an hour shifting uncomfortably in the corridor every time someone would pass by her and stare, Zira decides to look for Zazu, who would hopefully hold an answer to whatever was going on. His office is conveniently placed close to the elevators, but not easy to find in the huge building, so Zira wastes almost ten minutes on that as well. By the time she spots a familiar blue suit, it’s already a little over 10 AM and she wonders if that’s going to show in her paycheck.

“Oh, he’s just probably not here yet,” Zazu casually answers Zira’s question as if it were perfectly normal for her boss to not show up to work.  
“But…” she protests.  
“It’s quite normal for him not to show up to work,” the man replies and Zira blinks in confusion. “Usually he just comes in late, but sometimes he doesn’t show at all. All you can do is respect your schedule and try to do your best. It’s not going to be easy, but that’s the way it is with him.”  
“But that’s ridiculous. His family may own the company but he can’t get away with it just like that.”  
Zazu signs and returns a sympathetic smile to his new coworker. “You haven’t checked out the entire floor yet, have you? Come on, I’ll show you around.”  
The way back to the office is surely shorter this time and also more enlightening as Zazu explains the unwritten rules that make things work around the company. As an introduction, Zira learns the basics: the receptionists are the only ones not afraid of Scar and they have all the juicy gossip, the IT team is useless, Zazu more or less ends up being a psychiatrist for everyone around the offices, and when in doubt always ask the administrative assistants. Zira laughs off the new information, finding hope in thinking that the place might not be as bad as she imagined it; that is until she reaches Scar’s office.

“Nice of you to finally show up,” she hears the man say when she stops in front of the door. It seems that in the time it took Zira to get a hold of Zazu, Scar has settled himself at the desk, making it look like he has been working for hours. “Zazu, I’m sure my brother pays you to do other things than to walk around and have a good chat,” the man continues with a cynical voice, settling his green eyes upon the other assistant.  
Zazu becomes visibly paler and Zira swears he looks like a bird ruffling its feathers as he quickly walks away after blurting out an apology.  
“I thought you had a fixed schedule,” Scar goes on again with a dry comment but nonetheless averts his gaze towards his laptop.  
“Well, the office was empty when I arrived, so…” Zira tries to carefully formulate her answer because there is really no polite way of saying ‘you are the one who isn’t on time, you asshole’ to your boss.  
“You arrived late this morning.”  
The statement and the matter-of-factly tone it was said with take Zira by surprise, since she thought she had the upper hand in this. She watches him, lips slightly parted, trying to figure out how in the world did he find out. _There’s no way he saw me, he wasn’t even here_ , she thinks, but things don’t really add up. Did somebody snitch on her? Not cool.  
As silence fills the room, Zira assumes that a short apology would be the end of the conversation. _No use fighting it_ , she thinks. So after she does what she intended, she awkwardly enters the office and waits for Scar to instruct her on her duties.  
“So how can I help you, sir?” Zira says after she waits for a good couple of minutes to no avail.  
“You don’t,” Scar replies, not even bothering to look up from his screen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aah, I'm so sorry this took so long to update. I lost the original document when my computer crashed and I just couldn't bring myself to rewrite it until now.


	3. Progress

She spends the first few days of her job not really doing much. Or better yet, if she is being honest with herself, not doing anything at all. The most important job-related task she receives from Scar is bringing in a file from another office, while her second major obligation is making him “good coffee,” a task which she, according to him, repeatedly fails to truly accomplish. Moreover, his annoyance with her only manages to increase when Mufasa notices Zira in Scar’s office and drops in for an unexpected visit.  
“Glad to see he finally listened to me and got himself an assistant,” Mufasa tells her after a brief introduction and a firm handshake. “He can be so stubborn at times but I always tell him he works too much. He misses all the family dinners because of it! But this is, of course, just brotherly talk,” he goes on with a chuckle and a broad smile.  
Zira smiles back but faintly, feeling slightly awkward as the subject of family is brought up. She sees Scar growing more tense with each second his brothers spends talking inside the office, and truth be told, Mufasa doesn’t seem like he’s done yet.  
“As the Chief Executive, I warmly welcome you,” he switches tones. “I’m sure you have been properly instructed about your duties and conduct, and that the productivity in the financial unit will increase now that you are here. We are a rapidly growing company and, as I have grand plans for its future, I say we need more capable hands on board. I hope you already began to accommodate yourself here and that my brother won’t make things too difficult for you.”  
Between the man’s speech and Scar glaring daggers across the room, Zira doesn’t really get a chance to reply with something more coherent that “yes” and “thank you,” but nonetheless Mufasa seems pleased with that and finally makes an exit. With the immediate source of trouble now gone, Zira thinks that things might settle down again. An incorrect guess, as it turns out, since Scar looks like he’s one second away from murdering someone.  
“Should I…,” she treads carefully, “should I go and make some coffee?”  
Scar eyes her for a few seconds. “That is the only sensible thing I’ve heard you say all week.”

Zira finds peace in the quickly walked hallways of the building. It’s still early in the morning, but everyone is already beginning to stress out because of the annual report that will have to be drafted and turned in the following week. She walks down the corridor and towards the elevators, where the nearest coffee vending machine lies, but as is her luck today, she finds it out of order. _Great_ , she thinks as she fruitlessly keeps pressing on buttons. She vaguely remembers seeing another machine downstairs, but as the elevator doors open and she sees no trace of it, she walks towards the reception to ask for help. There, she is greeted by a slim, tall woman with dirty blond hair, while another short-haired brunette just glares at her without saying anything.  
“Hey, sorry, do you know where can I get some coffee around here?” Zira asks.  
“Oh, now she comes to us,” the brunette says in a sharp voice while eyeing her colleague. “First week on the job and you don’t even bother to say ‘hello?’”  
Zira frowns, trying to catch her meaning, and indeed she realizes that this is the first time she has stopped by the front desk. “Sorry, I didn’t know I had to check-in by the reception,” she confesses.  
The woman gives her an outraged look, rising her eyebrows. “Well, you don’t have to, it’s just good manners,” she scoffs. “Besides, did you just call us receptionists? We are Front Desk Assistants. Girl, bye! Get your coffee somewhere else.”  
“The machine upstairs is broken,” Zira says, trying to remain unfazed by the woman’s attitude.  
“Oh, my God…” the other woman sitting at the desk cuts in, ushering her colleague away. “Don’t mind Shenzi,” she tells Zira with a warm smile. “She’s just mad she didn’t get promoted so now she tries to suck up to the bosses.”  
“Well, at least I don’t _suck_ my bosses,” Shenzi snarls right back, and the blonde just rolls her eyes and shakes her head.  
A thought crosses Zira’s mind upon hearing this. Could this Shenzi be then the one who told Scar about her being late? Rude.  
“How do you want your coffee?” she hears the tall blonde ask, pulling Zira out of her conspiracy unravelling thoughts.  
“I’m not sure, I’m getting it for Scar,” she says.  
“Then it’s espresso with two spoons of sugar,” the other woman smiles, picking up a small white cup. “He always comes down here for his coffee. The one from upstairs is terrible,” she explains as she puts the cup under a fancy looking coffee machine. “I’m Sarafina, by the way.”  
“Zira,” the long-haired brunette extends her hand. “Nice to meet you.”  


The two women pleasantly chat for the short while it takes the coffee to brew and in less than five minutes, Zira is back at the office, balancing the small white cup in her hand. Scar slightly raises his brow, curiously, as Zira sets down the coffee in front of him.  
“That’s progress,” he says as he takes a sip.  
“Progress would be doing what I’m paid for,” she replies, looking him evenly in the eyes.  
“Mhm,” he hums as he empties the cup. “Then draft the brief for tomorrow’s meeting.”  
Zira widens her eyes. Is she actually being entrusted with a primary responsibility? Wild. But she wasn’t aware Scar had a meeting scheduled for the next day, even if, as executive assistant, managing his schedule was also supposed to be one of her duties. She’ll take this in baby steps then.  
“Of course. Who are you meeting with?”  
“Shere Khan.”  
Zira stares blankly at him for a sound few seconds, slightly shifting her head to the side. “ _The_ Shere Khan?” she asks incredulously.  
“Is there a problem with that?” Scar also questions.  
“No. Not at all,” Zira replies, as if drafting a brief for the most prolific business man in the States about a meeting she knows nothing about in less than a day won’t get her royally screwed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for bearing with my insomnia induced writing <3


End file.
